The College Dropout

I personally don’t agree with that approach. These games count. If performances levels are still high and a player is a little tired you take the risk to secure the result.

Extremely difficult to find the next Salah.

I agree. And I hope that’s the plan. But I haven’t seen any actual evidence of that. In 3 very different fixtures we didn’t give it a go for even 10 minutes. So far Howe has been pretty rigid in our formation and substitutions.

Mate he doesn’t often beat defenders 1v1, he’s not an incisive passer. He simply isn’t going to open teams up with his ability on a regular basis. He doesn’t offer much threat in build up. He has great movement and often gets himself into great positions to create or score. But he lacks the quality to consistently capitalise with a final ball or composed finish. I think he lacks the ability to consistently finish the good chances he gets. I can see him being streaky when his confidence is up. But won’t be able to maintain it. My mates try and tell me Howe will be sacked if we don’t get top 4. I reject it - we are still starting Almiron. He has some great attributes but do you think he’s a top 4 player? Murphy seems to be his backup. We got Dan Burn and a kid at LB. Dan Burn and Lascelles as backup CBs. We’ve not got a single creative midfielder type player. So far it’s looking like Anthony Gordon. Based on the quality of the squad and its demands 6th-7th wouldn’t be unreasonable depending on how things pan out.

Aye but all of his starts in games apart from Chelsea (due to injuries) have been at LW. Last season he was behind Joelinton, Isak and ASM for LW minutes but Howe wanted to give him minutes so he put him places. I want him to play RW but the fact he’s not played a single minute there this season doesn’t indicate to me that is the current plan. Not even 20 minutes.

I think managers have clocked on to that and have plans in place to prevent it from succeeding. What 3 positions? He moved due to a mini injury crisis in a dead rubber. But competitively he seems to have played predominantly on the left. He played a lot at RW for Everton though.

While I hope that’s not the case. The only evidence we have so far is that Gordon and Barnes are fighting for one position. Neither has spent a single minute anywhere but LW.

True. I think I may have missed the post chance. I had to leave around 83/84 minute. Almiron is one of 3 attackers in our team. It’s his job to create and finish chances for the team. From what I saw he did a great job to get on the end of chances but he didn’t score them. those chances came from good work on the left which we didn’t get from the right at all. In general play I don’t think he offered much at all going forward in terms of chance creation. I gave him credit for his off the ball work offensively and defensively. He just lacks that bit of quality imo.

I didn’t think he offered any threat against Liverpool. He did manage to get on the end of some chances but he didn’t score them anyway. If you’re not going to be dangerous in build up - you need to take your chances when they come. I don’t expect him to finish those type of chances anyway. I thought he looked our most dangerous layer against city mind but again just lacking in that crucial element of class and ability. Both offensively and defensively his off the ball work is really good.

Just a lack of technique and ball control. It’s like he can only control and pass the ball with a couple areas on his foot. He tries though init.

He’s starting because FFP limits what we can do and our top targets may not have wanted to come. He’s an excellent squad option and I think his pressing should be used as the benchmark for others for at least another season. But a side finishing in the top 4 with him playing RW 2 seasons in a row would be miraculous.

He takes an age to cut back too. So. Many. Touches.

What’s funny is I missed the capitulation. Stopped watching at about 84 minutes. Came back. 1-1. Came back. 1-2.

1-1 would’ve been disappointing. 1-2 is a crumble. I rate Liverpool higher than most on here. But after going 1-0 and then down to 10 men. We should’ve won no excuses. A draw wouldve been bad. Losing is a black mark for Howe and he will know it. Aye. Plenty of credit in the bank. It’s early but that should be some type of nadir that we will recover from. After the Brighton game we need to put some W’s together. Winning away at Brighton would be a fantastic start but that’s a free hit for me. Im behind him 100% as are 99.9% of fans

We don’t play ‘off’ him very much. He need that.

I missed the last 10 minutes of the game. But… Almiron was not good. The game epitomised our general weaknesses. I don’t see us doing any further i coming business so let’s see how it goes.

One thing about Howe is he’s pretty predictable. He hasn’t programmed that move yet.

In general play he doesn’t offer much threat. Not through passing or dribbling really. He’s got good movement in general and in the box to get on the end of chances but he doesn’t have the quality and composure to regular score imo. Going forward in open play his most useful attribute is creating space for Trips. And with Tonali not linking so well yet and managers defending against it - we need more from him. If we’re not going to play any genuine creative midfielders we need more threat from wide. I would’ve liked Howe to have gone 4231 at a point. More players in attacking positions.

Or Gordon. Almiron x Murphy is so weak.

Don’t understand why he wasn’t going wide or deep to get the ball. That’s his game. You

I’m most concerned that it seems to be him or Gordon LW and Almiron x Murphy for the right

Was excellent.

The jump in class between Botman and Burn is huge.

And the way the squad has Been built. There’s little creativity.

Apart from having the right aggression we were not at it at all bar Gordon. Substitutions looked pre planned and not reading the game. I hate when managers do that. Southgate does the same thing. Based on the game. We were ok for legs in midfield. Needed threat on the right. And Gordon to keep going.